'Keeping up with the times': JCC welding instructor turns class labs into global YouTube hit

When Associate Professor of Welding Brent Harkness started his YouTube channel, he did so to give students a virtual option for lessons. More than 6 million views later, his goal of teaching hasn't changed.

With the help of one of his students at Jamestown Community College, Harkness launched TVWeld in 2015.

"When I first started teaching here, I never wanted to become a stale instructor, so I've always tried to adapt with the times," Harkness explained. "Make sure that I'm keeping up with the times as far as instruction, what kids are into, what students are into, how teaching has evolved over the years."

WATCH: Keeping up with the times: JCC welding instructor turns class labs into global YouTube hit

Harkness' original goal was to upload labs from his class.

"That's how it all started," he said. "Then it kind of went into some different paths as it developed."

One of those different paths includes shorter-form content Harkness calls Question of the Day, where he answers a welding-related question submitted by students and viewers each day.

Speaking of viewers, Harkness' lessons quickly went beyond the classroom. According to him, outside of the United States, the Philippines is his largest viewing audience.

As of this year, TVWeld has garnered over 6 million views and nearly 23,000 subscribers. The content proved so successful that it has expanded to other platforms.

"I actually had a student when I started doing question of the day; I ran it by one of my students. He was working at one of our local manufacturers at the time, and I said, 'I'm gonna try and do this question of the day, and I did it,' Harkness said. "So he stops by, and he plays it, and it got to like 30 seconds, and he goes, 'I'm already lost. My brain goes for less than 20 seconds,' that's what he told me. So then he filmed another one, and I kept it under 20 seconds. He goes, 'That's the ticket,'"

Much of his content and ideas are driven by engagement from his students.

"I ask my students when I'm doing R&D, I'll call it research and design, on what, where we should go and what directions we should move."

However, Harkness' innovation doesn't stop on social platforms. Recently, with the help of an AI assistant, he identified an opportunity that secured JCC a $1.2 million grant to support a nuclear energy program.

"What it'll be is our existing associate's degrees in the MTI Technology umbrella, and then there'll be a nuclear microcredential that will go with those actual degrees to allow them to go to a nuclear facility and say, 'Hey, I'm good at machining, CNC, welding, mechanics and I also have this credential for nuclear," Harkness said.

Harkness hopes other professors embrace tech to connect and educate their students moving forward.

"I just talk to students and say, 'What do you think about this? What are you doing? What are you using? What do you think the future students are gonna wanna relate to?' That's where the whole YouTube thing came from." Harkness said. "I think we should be moving in that direction because if they're doing that in my class, they're probably gonna be doing that in a lot of other classes."